Strain your brain - and then win the merchandise!

Published:09:32Friday 06 December 2013

DVD REVIEW: Now You See Me (12), (116 mins), new on DVD from LOVEFiLM.

Now You See Me is now out on DVD, and on second viewing it remains just as brilliant, if slightly less baffling. Maybe it’s even better second time round– the best way to appreciate the cleverness behind it all.

Maybe the film is not quite in the same league as The Prestige, surely the best film in this particular line, but it’s still an impressive watch which twists and turns you and leaves you reflecting “Nope, I never saw it coming.”

The gist is that a group of illusionists (including Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Isla Fisher), are mysteriously brought together to pull off a heist live on stage in Las Vegas. Before their audience’s very eyes, they rob a bank thousands of miles away in Paris , somehow instantaneously transporting across the Atlantic thousands of bank notes which flutter down from the ceiling.

Behind it all, there’s a deeper motive as they move on to their next trick and the next. But they don’t know it any more than we do, so it seems. No wonder detective Mark Ruffalo is struggling. If he arrests them, well, then surely he’s believing in magic.

Complicating it all further and lurking in the background are Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, each with their own agenda.

Put it all together, and you get a mesmerising couple of hours, in the Shutter Island/Inception mould but better than both, playfully bewildering and great good fun.

n To mark the film’s release on DVD, we’ve got five goodie bags to give away. The goodie bags include Now You See Me T-shirt, iPad case, pack of cards and memory stick.

Simply email ents@chiobserver.co.uk giving your name, address and day-time phone number and putting Now You See Me in the subject line. Or write to Now You See Me competition, c/o Phil Hewitt, Chichester Observer, Unicorn House, Eastgate Square, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 1JN. Entries to be received by midnight on December 18. Only the winners will be contacted.